Navigating the Future of B2B SaaS with G2’s Executive Advisory Board

We recently had the opportunity to host representatives from G2’s Executive Advisory Board (EAB) for an offsite strategy session.

For background, the EAB – which comprises a group of visionary GTM leaders at G2 customers – was established earlier this year to provide strategic input and guidance that can shape G2’s future.

Having this esteemed group of industry leaders in one place at the same time was not only a unique opportunity, but it also meant that the ideas were flying. I’m immensely grateful for their time, input, and authentic feedback.

5 takeaways for B2B SaaS success

From all of the exciting conversations had, here are my five takeaways that will help guide G2 and other B2B SaaS companies to a successful future:

Modern CMOs are driving revenue, not just pipeline. They’re doing this by measuring total marketing sourced and influenced revenue (rather than just MQLs) as the key aligned measure and by moving to support product-led growth (PLG) models, where marketing drives the prospect straight into a trial or self-serve offer. With this approach, sales can then focus their efforts on expansion and upsell.

AI is changing the game for leading CMOs both by accelerating content creation and enhancing the ability to drive personalization and localization in all marketing and sales outreach. It’s a no-brainer today to tap AI to extend the shelf life and reach of existing content by repurposing it into different formats – videos, social graphics, blog posts, etc.

To win with AI, SaaS businesses must feed content creation with unique company data and insights. Otherwise, they won’t stand out and will simply be adding to the infinite sea of AI-generated noise and content. The key here is to use language models for turning data into SEO-friendly text by adding context to the numbers – not relying on them to provide the original data. AI is the language model, not the information system, and the formula to remember is: Original Data + Prompts + LLM = SEO Success.

Marketing and sales professionals are uniquely qualified to build empathy and deep connections that AI will never replace. Artificial intelligence will automate much of our tedious and repetitive tasks so we can focus on uniquely human connection and creation. The revenue team can spend more time fostering relationships with customers and prospects, while marketers can brainstorm new creative ideas and campaigns, relying on AI as an assistant to help them work more efficiently.

Customer-centricity is more important than ever. Lots of companies talk about being customer-centric – putting customers at the center of everything they do – but not all live this. Are there feedback loops? Is customer feedback incorporated into the product roadmap? Are you speaking to customers’ real issues and pain points in marketing campaigns? At G2, our business is based on the power of customer feedback via authentic reviews, but we also know that being customer-centric goes beyond that. Bringing together this EAB group is just one way we are striving to improve how we incorporate customer feedback.

Above and beyond

These takeaways validate my belief that G2 has the unique ability to facilitate modern digital buyer experiences as the shift to online software buying research and customer self-service will only accelerate.

The ability of AI – including G2’s software buying assistant, Monty – to provide immediate, data-driven insights is a key driver of this shift. I also anticipate that the influence of static, dated analyst reports will continue to wane over the next decade as buyers demand real-time, online shopping experiences even for complex enterprise software solutions.